A Spanish legal scholar who spent 25 years researching Jesus’s trial has concluded that the man believed by Christians to be the Son of God received due process under Roman law.

Jose Maria Ribas Alba says that Jesus’s trial and punishment were consistent with other contemporary cases, and that the “criminal proceedings against him were legal,” the New York Daily News reports. The finding disputes Biblical accounts that say that the charges against Christ were exaggerated and that his punishment was unusually cruel.

Ribas Alba says that the charges against Jesus were both religious and political crimes, and that crucifixion was a standard punishment for such crimes.